Monday, October 3, 2011

DOLCETTO AT TERRONI

Here's another lunchtime stop at Terroni, a nice place in Los Angeles that favors Italian food and wine. The vibe doesn't really sing opera, but the food is good and the wine list is heavy on Italian wines.

A Dolcetto jumped out at me, the '09 Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto di Dogliani. Dolcetto di Dogliani is the Dolcetto grape grown in the little hamlet of Dogliani, in Piemonte. The wine cost $10 by the glass at the restaurant.

The wine is colored medium dark ruby red and features a tarry scent on the nose. Cassis, black cherry and licorice aromas also come through. The taste is dark and earthy, and the wine feels young and brash on the palate. Dolcetto - despite meaning "little sweet one" in Italian - is a fairly tanninc grape, and this one shows it in spades. It paired reasonably well with the pork loin and potato dish, but with all that tannic structure, it should have been a steak.